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Written by Jared Fiel
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Thursday, 29 March 2007 |
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You hate your job. You haven’t had a vacation in years. Your kids drive you crazy. Your wife has a ton of things she wants you to do (and none of them includes the one thing you want to do).
But none of that matters.
It’s Opening Day, baby!
That Titanic-sized glacier in front of your house may have melted away, but the real end of winter happens when you take that first sip of a cold brew in the stands at Coors Field.
 In a perfect world, baseball’s Opening Day would be a national holiday. Businesses and schools would close in honor of our national pasttime.
Until that time, we’ll all have to call in sick (baseball fever, right?) and vouch for each other as we come together to kick off the beginning of the baseball season.
It’s all good on Opening Day. The Rockies don’t have a losing record. Hopes are high (and after a few Squeezeplay Wheats, so are you!).
Everything is beautiful on Opening Day. Especially in downtown Denver. I’ve been to the last eight or nine home openers, and I can tell you there’s nothing like the magic of Opening Day in LoDo. The bars blare loud, live music (my favorite kind!). Every corner hosts another radio station giving away free crap. Beer companies have half-naked girls advertising their product (God bless ‘em). Even the homeless people are smiling when they are bumming a buck off you.
 Sure, the parking sucks (figure on paying at least $15 anywhere in the 303 area code). But it’s usually not too tough to score a ticket (they say it sells out every year, but there are plenty of folks willing to sell outside the park).
Be sure to get there early to spend some time downtown before going into the park. Jackson’s across from Coors Field is always packed. And then get into the park. Batting practice is a great time to knock down a 6-year-old to get a ball. And the pre-game festivities on the field are usually pretty good. I saw Hank Aaron there one year.
There’s always a flyover to kick off the season. The best one was when five Huey helicopters cruised over our nose-bleed seats. The worst: a couple years ago when some airline paid to have one of its planes do the honors (Please, Mr. Monfort, don’t do that again).
So, get out there and root, root, root, for the home team. Yell and scream with 50,000 of your closest friends. Knock back a few. And don’t even think about having to go to work the next day.
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TO GO TO THE SHOW
The Colorado Rockies open the 2007 season at home at 2:05 p.m. on Monday, April 2, against the Arizona Diamondbacks. The Rockies are 9-5 on Opening Day and 3-0 against the D-backs on Opening Day.
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Jared Fiel is a freelance writer who lives in Greeley. | Only registered users can write comments.
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